Tuesday, December 20, 2016

1990 Winner, Journey of Hope

Journey
of Hope

Director:Xavier Koller

Distributed by:Miramax

Released:August 1990

Country:Switzerland

A 20th century poet once opined,
“It’s no fun being an illegal alien.”Truer words were never spoken for Haydar, a sheep farmer from rural
Turkey.Sure Haydar has a loving wife, a
gaggle of fun children, a supportive extended family, and a never-ending supply
of lamb chops.But he gets a postcard
from his brother in Switzerland that says something like, “Having a lovely time
sucking down hot chocolate and listening to that Ricola dude yodeling in my
back yard.Hope to see ya soon on the
ski slopes!”(that’s a rough
translation)This postcard enchants
Haydar, and soon his mind is made up--he's off to Switzerland.

I’m no whiz in geography, but it
would seem to me that it isn’t all that easy to get from Turkey

Haydar and Mehmet Ali reading the postcard

to Switzerland
without a passport.Switzerland doesn’t
have a huge wall at its border (or didn’t in this movie—how the heck should I
know?) but it does have a little thing called the Alps!Haydar may have watched the Von Trapps
saunter through the mountains to escape the Nazis, but he will soon find that
this isn’t the movies.Well, it is the
movies, but you know what I mean.

Haydar can’t afford to take the whole
family—he will have to grease a few officials along the way and sell everything
he has just to get himself and his wife out of there.He decides to take one of the kids with him
because kids adapt so well to new things.At the beginning of the film, all Haydar’s kids had a group dare, the
stunt being to lie on the train tracks while a train passes over

REEE-CO-LAAAH!

them.All be but one chickened out before the train got there—all but little
Mehmet Ali, a cute 7-year-old boy.Watching the kid who plays Mehmet Ali was probably the most enjoyable
part of this film for me.He’s one of
those kids who pisses a parent off by ignoring what he’s told to do, but Mom or
Dad can’t stay mad because you cannot help but like his pluck and good
nature.Mehmet Ali wins over everyone he
comes in contact with, including a crusty old trucker who helps the threesome
get toward their destination.There is
one scene in particular—toward the end of the film, when the family is
struggling in the cold mountains, when Mehmet Ali is cold and scared and you
can’t help but worry about the little fella.

One thing I struggled with was why on
earth Haydar got it into his Turkish skull that he had to move to Switzerland
in the first place.Sure, his dopey
brother painted a pretty picture for him, but he really didn’t seem to have it
all that bad in Turkey.I mean, it’s not
like he lived in Detroit.He was willing
to sacrifice everything to get to his Shangri-La, and I don’t want to give away
the ending, but sometimes you have to realize the grass isn’t always greener on
the other side of the mountains.

Crossing the Alps in the movies

The
Title:Also known as Reise der Hoffnung in German and Umuda yolculuk in Turkish.I’m not sure those are direct translations,
but they can’t be worse than Journey of
Hope as a title.

The
Culture:What I got out
of it is that if they can, Turks will do anything to get out of their country,
and there are plenty of crooks willing to take their money to help them do it.

Crossing the Alps in this movie

Agenda
Danger:I GUESS if
you are obsessed with illegal immigration, you might find fault with how
sympathetic Haydar and his family are seen.But only if you are like Ann Coulter-crazy.

Best
Picture that year:Dances With Wolves

Rating:It was nothing downright special, but I admit
to having rooted for this family, or at least to see something go right for
them.This cost me $2 on Amazon to watch
it and it was worth every penny.